Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: UMLS:C0409974 (lupus)
 22,386 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Apoptotic cells are swiftly engulfed by macrophages and immature dendritic cells. Inefficient clearance of apoptotic cells has been implicated as a cause of inflammation and autoimmune diseases. Milk fat globule-EGF factor 8 (MFG-E8) and developmental endothelial locus-1 (Del-1) are glycoproteins secreted from macrophages that pass apoptotic cells to phagocytes. MFG-E8, but not Del-1, is expressed in the tingible-body macrophages at the germinal centers of the second lymphoid tissues. MFG-E8-deficient mice carry many unengulfed apoptotic cells in the germinal centers of the spleen, and develop a lupus-like autoimmune disease. In this review, we discuss the importance of the MFG-E8-mediated clearance of apoptotic cells in the prevention of autoimmune diseases.
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PMID:MFG-E8-dependent clearance of apoptotic cells, and autoimmunity caused by its failure. 1639 60